Flare lighter



.- July 16.1963- 7 w s 3,392,672

FLARE LIGHTER Filed may 29. 1967 HQ 3 4 'INVENTOR. RONALD c. 'NOLES ROYMILLER ATTORNEY.

United States Patent 3,392,672 FLARE LIGHTER Ronald C. Noles, ChinaLake, Califi, assignor to the United States of America as represented bythe Secretary of the Navy Filed May 29, 1967, Ser. No. 643,309 Claims.(Cl. 102-70) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A firing pin type ignitiondevice designed to have the firing pin body fit into and block theignition port and also hold aside the primer shutter when in the safeposition and adapted to be fired by application of a single slightunidirectional force.

The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or forthe Government of the United States of America for governmental purposeswithout the payment of any royalties thereon or therefor.

This invention relates to ignition means for pyrotechnic devices andparticularly to long burning flares or candles carried by a balloon orparachute. Long burning flares and candles are commonly manufacturedfrom materials which are not easily ignited. It has been the practice,therefore, to include a first fire mix on the ignition end of thecandle. Ignition devices for these candles needed only a primer and astarter to ignite the first fire mix in the candle. Such ignitiondevices commonly incorporated numerous safety features including theshutter type primer carrier designed to be maintained out of firingposition when in the safe condition and often the shutter was arrangedto cover the firing port in the safe position. Usually such devices werealso provided with a safety pin which had to be pulled before the firingpin could be cocked and the device put into a ready condition. Thedevice was then ready to be fired by a tripping mechanism. These priorart ignition devices and candles presented two main problems. First, theinclusion of a highly incendiary first fire mix in the candle made thehandling and storage of these candles hazardous. Secondly, thecomplicated procedure necessary for assembling, arming, cocking andtripping the device was complicated and presented a source of error andwas necessarily time consuming.

It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide an igniterdevice which is safely, reliably and easily armed, cocked and fired by apull force of only about 68 pounds.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an ignition devicewhich will reliably ignite a flare or candle without the necessity forsuch flare or candle having a first fire device.

Further and ancillary objects of the invention will appear from a studyof the following specification and drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of one practical embodiment ofan ignition device according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross section of the disclosed device taken along line 22 ofFIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of the device with the firingpin retracted sufficiently to allow the rotor to be in position over theignition port; and

FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view taken along line 44 of FIG. 3.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a generally cylindrical housing member is shownat 10. Housing is internally threaded at each end and receives, in theone end, a firing pin assembly 20 and, in the other end, a booster cup12. Located centrally of the housing is a coaxial, cylindrical 3,392,672Patented July 16, 1968 firing port 50. This firing port has a relievedportion 11, complementarily formed to receive a portion 24 of firing pin22. A shutter 40 is pivoted on post 42, integral with housing 10, and isbiased to a firing position by means of a spring 41. Spring 41 actsagainst the side of the housing 10 and against a pin 51 provided on theshutter. See FIGS. 2 and 4. The spring and shutter are confined on thepost 42 by means of washer 44 and pin 43. When the device is firstassembled, the shutter 40 is held out of firing position by firing pin22 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The shutter carries a primer 45 and is soshaped and positioned that, when released, the primer 45 will bepositioned directly over the firing port 50. Firing pin 22 is maintainedin this initial position by means of firing pin spring 21 acting uponguide washer 15 and a flange of the adapter 14. At its outer end thefiring pin is attached to a flanged portion of sleeve 16 as by forging ahead 39 on reduced portion 18 of the pin. Sleeve 16 has one or moreholes therein adapted to receive a detent ball 17. A pull cap 19 isslidably received on sleeve 16 and is retained in place thereon bydetent ball 17. The booster cup 12 has a central cylindrical cavity,coaxial with the firing port 50, and is chambered to receive an ignitionpellet 32. The ignition pellet 32 is chambered to receive a container 13of a starter mix 30. Ignition pellet 32 is held in position in the cupby a pellet support 33. Booster cup 12 is provided with a central firehole 35 coaxial with the firing port 50 and, in some applications, alsomay have a number of peripheral ports 34. When the device is in its safeposition as shown in FIG. 1, the rotor 40 is maintained out of positionby intervention of firing pin section 22.

In its operational use, the firing device is actuated simply by applyinga force to pull cap 19 in a direction to the left as viewed in FIG. 1.This force is transmitted to sleeve 16 by means of detent ball 17 andthus firing pin 20 is pulled out of interfering relationship with rotor40 as shown in FIG. 3. When rotor 40 is free to assume the positionshown in FIG. 4, rotor spring 41 positions the rotor against stop 46. Inthis position, primer 45 is in line with the central firing port withthe primer port 48 in coincidence with firing port 50. Further motion ofthe firing pin in the same direction will result in ball 17 being in aposition to ride off of adapter 14 and to move inwardly and allowpull-cap 19 to then slide off of sleeve 16. With pull cap 19 out of theway, sleeve 16 and firing pin 20 are free to be urged in the oppositedirection by firing pin spring 21. Primer 45 is in position to be struckby the point 23 of the firing pin and is thus ignited. The primer firesthrough the firing port 50, starting the starter mix 30, which in turnignites an ignition pellet 32. Ignition pellet 32 creates a heatsufiicient to ignite ordinary flare candle compositions through ignitionport 35 and/ or a heat generator device through ports 34.

Referring again to FIG. 1, it may be seen that the firm seating offiring pin portion 22 into mating portion 11 of the housing issufficient to maintain the ignition device in a safe condition withoutthe necessity of safety pins, safety wire or other such safety devicesusually employed in prior art ignition devices. From the abovedescription it should be noted that the device of the present inventionis removed from a safe condition, armed, and fired all in one smoothlymoving operation by the application of a slight pull.

While the above is a description of, what at present is considered thepreferred embodiment of the present invention, it will be understood bythose skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may bemade therein without departing from the invention, and it is, therefore,intended in the appended claims to cover all such changes andmodifications that fall within the true scope and spirit of theinvention.

What is claimed is:

1. An ignition device comprising:

a housing;

partition means in said housing dividing said housing into first andsecond chambers,

said partition having a central firing port therein communicatingbetween said chambers,

primer means in said first chamber;

said primer means carrying a percussive primer and having a primer portand being biased to a firing position wherein said primer and saidprimer port are in coincidence with said firing port,

firing means in said first chamber,

said firing means including a firing pin biased in a direction towardsaid firing port and normally occupying an initial position wherein saidfiring pin fits into and blocks said firing port and simultaneouslyholds said primer means in a safe position with the primer port remotefrom coincidence with said firing port;

an ignition element in said second chamber,

said firing pin and said firing port comprising cylindrical matingsurfaces and conical mating surfaces such that, when said firing pin isin said initial position, the conical surface on said pin closely mateswith the conical surface in said firing port to prevent accidentalfiring of said ignition means in the event of premature ignition of saidprimer.

2. An ignition device according to claim 1 including:

means for moving said firing pin from said initial position to therebysequentially open said firing port, clear said primer means for movementto firing position over said firing port, and

release said firing pin for return travel toward said primer means. 3.An ignition device according to claim 1 wherein: said firing meansincludes releasable detent means ar- 5 ranged to connect the firing pinto a pull cap for moving the firing pin from said initial position andfor releasing said firing pin after a predetermined travel of saidfiring pin. 4. An ignition device according to claim 1 further includinga booster cup removably attached to said second chamber,

said booster cup providing; a cavity for holding said ignition element,and an ignition port leading outwardly from said cavity.

5. An ignition device according to claim 4 including:

said booster cup further comprising a plurality of peripheral ignitionports.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,665,666 4/1928 Junghans 102-762,421,271 5/1947 Kiang 10279 2,750,890 6/1956 Leonard 102-82 2,806,4279/1957 Hager 102-71 3,320,885 5/1967 Foster et al. 10270X BENJAMIN A.BORCHELT, Primary Examiner.

0 SAMUEL W. ENGLE, Examiner.

G. H. GLANZMAN, Assistant Examiner.

